South Africa

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The Magaliesberg Biosphere Reserve is located in South Africa, between the cities of Pretoria and Johannesburg. It forms the interface of two major African biomes, i.e. communities of animals and plants over a large geographical area, and the remnants of a third biome. These are the Central Grassland Plateau, the Sub-Saharan Savannah and the Afromontane Forest. A wide variety of floral species grow here. It is also home to numerous animal and bird species, accounting for 46.6% of all bird species in the South African sub-region.

The region is characterised by high unemployment, especially among young people, and poverty. The main economic sectors are agriculture, mining and tourism.

Raising young people's awareness of the environment and sustainability is a priority for UNESCO Biosphere Reserves. The MAB programme therefore places particular emphasis on strengthening its national youth networks.

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In cooperation with the German Commission for UNESCO, the Magaliesberg Biosphere Reserve management unit organised training courses for youth leaders from all ten South African biosphere reserves. They received teaching materials and training in presentation techniques to help them communicate the importance of South Africa's biosphere reserves to different audiences, especially other young people. For this purpose, after extensive research and in cooperation with various representatives of youth work, appealing presentation materials were developed that can be adapted to different target groups. In addition, presentation techniques and the use of visual media were practised in several workshops.

As the project involved South Africa's entire national youth network, cooperation between youth groups throughout the country was strengthened and cooperation with other target groups was initiated. The aim is to raise awareness of sustainability and environmental protection in the different regions of the country.

Cooperation project 2024: Expansion of training courses and communication materials

Building on the successful training of young people in South Africa and the creation of presentation materials on South African biosphere reserves in 2023, the Magaliesberg Biosphere Reserve project managers updated and expanded the presentation materials in 2024 to make them usable for youth groups in Eswatini and Lesotho.

Together with an illustrator, the project team created new maps and banners, updated presentation slides and wrote new texts about the biosphere reserves in Eswatini and Lesotho. Youth leaders from the Lubombo and Matseng Biosphere Reserves helped to adapt the materials to ensure that the content reflected the specific characteristics of the two biosphere reserves. The project team then organised a communication workshop for young people in Eswatini. As in the previous year in South Africa, the workshop familiarised the young people with the MAB concept and enabled them to take responsibility for promoting the Lubombo Biosphere Reserve by learning how to address different groups of people in Eswatini in an appropriate manner and inform them about the objectives and special features of the Lubombo Biosphere Reserve.